The Conversation

You may have stood on a cliff or peered from a high building and noticed something odd: not fear exactly, but a strange, almost electric awareness in your feet. Michelle Spear, a professor of anatomy, explains that what feels like buzzing or subtle heaviness in your feet is actually your nervous system recalibrating your balance in real time.

It’s not vertigo or a fear response. Instead, your brain is turning up the sensitivity in the soles of your feet, reading tiny shifts in pressure and sway with extraordinary precision. And although this happens to everyone, only some of us become consciously aware of it, turning a hidden survival mechanism into a peculiar sensation.

We’re also looking at how the UK has launched the first human trials of an mRNA bird flu vaccine, marking a major step forward in pandemic preparedness.

Finally, a new article examines the hidden psychological toll of “moral injury” at work, and how corporate culture during times of crisis can leave lasting ethical and emotional scars on employees.

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Clint Witchalls

Senior Health Editor

Anton Gvozdikov/Shutterstock.com

Why do heights make your feet feel strange?

Michelle Spear, University of Bristol

That strange buzzing in your feet at heights isn’t fear, it’s your nervous system doing something quietly remarkable.

SvetikovaV/ Shutterstock

A bird flu vaccine for humans is being trialled – here’s how it works

Roja Hadianamrei, University of Portsmouth

This latest trial hopes to test the vaccine in people who are most at risk of acquiring bird flu.

KieferPix/Shutterstock

When your workplace doesn’t match your ethical outlook – the problem of ‘moral injury’

Ebru Işıklı, University College Dublin

Careers and caring don’t always align.

World

Politics + Society

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Arts + Culture

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Health

Science + Technology

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